The age of entitlement: how wealth breeds narcissism

[DonCoquixote]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/08/the-age-of-entitlement-how-wealth-breeds-narcissism

Sample:
"Call it the asshole effect. That is the term coined by US psychologist Paul Piff after he did some stunning new research into the effects of wealth and inequality on people’s attitudes.

As we ponder Joe Hockey’s budget and his division of the world into "leaners" and "lifters", as we learn from Oxfam that the richest 1% of Australians now own the same wealth as the bottom 60%, we would do well to consider the implications of Piff’s studies. He found that as people grow wealthier, they are more likely to feel entitled, to become meaner and be more likely to exploit others, even to cheat."

[moondust]

1. "All animals are equal,

but some animals are more equal than others."

Oh wait...that's communism.

[nomorenomore08]

5. "Pure" capitalism and "pure" communism mirror each other in more ways than a lot of people

would like to admit. Both involve the sacrifice of humanity (as in "humane-ness," not "the human race&quot and even common sense in the pursuit of ideology.

[conservaphobe]

2. "Fuck you" money. nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Lewis Lapham (editor of Harper's) wrote about that in the 80s.

It is called "Money and Power in America".

All about the wretched excess of the "greed is good" decade of the Reagan/Poppy Bush years.

[cali]

4. I admire Louis Lapham

and he's evidence that privilege doesn't invariably produce assholes- though he and others like him are, sadly, the exception. Louis Lapham comes from immense privilege.